Six Days in Pokhara

We arrived in Pokhara on Friday afternoon. It was very nice to see the swimming pool shining very blue in the sunshine. Nice after a long bus journey and nice after six days of rain! I had a swim first thing! We made good use of the pool. I swam at least once a day and was proud of myself for doing at least 40 lengths each day. (Well I’m not exactly the fittest person in the world!!) The Barahi Hotel where we stayed was very nice. They also gave good rates for residents, which dad was able to book. It was NRs 600 a night for a double room which is about a fiver.

On Saturday morning mum and dad and I went to church up in Lamachaur, a small village on the edge of Pokhara where we used to live for about 10 years. We had lunch after church with our old landlady. That and Wednesday were supposed to be our only meals at old friends houses but we ended up back up in Lamachaur for Sunday lunch, Monday evening we ate an amazing dahl bhat at the house of the owner of the hotel we were staying in who we discovered used to teach in the school where dad taught too many years ago. Sunday afternoon we visited Hari who had worked for us, and nothing would do but that we go back for food on Tuesday evening. It was so good to see her. She is married now and has two boys. She is only about five years older than me and was more of my friend when she was working with us. Wednesday we went to visit the first didi who worked for us. I was only four when she finished working for us so wouldn’t have recognized her anyway, but mum and dad had a shock at how old she looked. She has had seven kids and a bit of a hard life, and it shows. It was good to see her too. Fortunately she didn’t have dahl bhat as she was wanting us to come back the next day but we were leaving. Fortunately because after her we went to a village called Hyenja to visit Putali didi who was our didi for longest and a good friend to mum. She cooked us dahl bhat and we had a nice few hours there.

As well as this we got to hang out a little bit by the lakeside, though a little less than anticipated. Leisurely breakfasts at the Boomerang garden restaurant that has views out over the lake, where they have a hammock and a swinging chair and an atmosphere very conducive to hanging out all day. Lunch there too. Dinner at any of a number of cafes with good food, nice rooftop restaurants or indoor tables seated on cushions on a raised floor, or at a table outside. A lot of them show videos starting at about 7pm so you can pick where to eat by the movie too. We went one night to a good place we returned to for mum and dad to see a bit of Shrek. A favourite with me I must say.

We went out on the lake for an hour. A funny familiar experience. How many times had we been out there before. A family day out, a day of growing up when my brothers and I were able to row mum and dad around by ourselves. Learning to swim between the steps on the island with the temple. The water level in the lake seems to have risen as the island is smaller. I took a few photos, they came out okay but it is hard to get those ‘great’ shots.

The mountains were visible for a while most mornings before the clouds came up over them. On the Tuesday morning they were completely misted over when I got up to check at 6am if we should go for our walk. By 7am they were absolutely clear the whole range across and stunning. We got a taxi and then walked for about 45 minutes up to a stupa on top of a hill on the other side of the lake. A good walk up and a slightly clouding over but still really good view of the mountains. They are awesome. Completely and utterly amazing!!